I have issues explaining this to people. Sometimes I delve into industry buzzwords. For example, I’m in dev-sec-ops, I’m in computer networking or security, or just that I keep the site from going down. Sometimes this explains the question and we move onto another topic. But not always. So I’m going to write this down as a basic argument so I can just provide a link next time.
Part 1, Where I began:
Back in the day, we used primitive tools. By primitive, I mean tools that were actually present in hand, in the same room as the worker. This worker was typically a technical individual and he would run a script, secure a cable, or send an email from his laptop to get things done. He worked from a desk, in an office, with a copper cable that mimicked dots and dashes of telegraph days. This used to be me: say hello to Jack in 2012.
But times were changing. As more young workers became professionals, their needs pivoted. People didn’t need a cord plugged into their computer to access the internet when the WiFi password was visible from their desk. What they needed was a service available 100% of the time come fire, water, ice, or any other form of apocalypse. Or at least something that they would only miss a few minutes out of a fiscal year.
Part 2, What happened next:
Around this time, I took the initiative to pivot as well. I accumulated a couple of certifications in networking and computer security. I left my job as a desktop support specialist and got a new one as a traveling consultant. Through difficult courses and real-life experience, I learned the intricacies of bash scripting and the Linux command line. I moved past backing up old servers with VMware and started to futz with Docker, Containers, and Kubernetes.
At this point, I’ve probably gone too far into Industry Buzzwords™ and should probably pull back on the throttle. What I’m trying to indicate in the previous paragraph is that I moved. This move was a drive away from the Apple and Windows machines that I knew so well and into space where the actual websites we interact with exist.
While I can’t promise that it gets any simpler, embracing the complexity does make it easier to understand.
Despite what tech biz marketing labs try to cook up in our minds, these websites do not exist in a cloud floating by your local office tower. These things typically run on an old and extremely stable system called Unix, designed by Bell Labs in the 1970s and released as freeware in the middle 90s by a man named Linus Torvalds. This free variety was known as Linux and something like 90% of the websites we use today depends on it exclusively. If you’re familiar with this stuff, words like Apache, Tomcat, and the Russian flavor of Nginx will come to mind. If not, please stick with me so that I can continue to explain. While I can’t promise that it gets any simpler, embracing the complexity does make it easier to understand.
Part 3, The Dreaded Cloud:
Part of what simplified this transition was the rise of ‘Cloud Providers,’ companies that offered services that could be reached anytime, anywhere, by anybody the administration saw as worthy of viewing their stuff. The examples that can be provided are too numerous to include in this article, and if you want to google them, you’re more than welcome to. Google is one of them, but I won’t spend more time providing free advertising for the world’s largest advertising giant.
These providers created a space where you can spin up and immediately destroy machines that can do just about anything you want. They can soak up and interrogate massive amounts of data, provide website services, replace broken machines, and more. Most importantly, they provide a plane where you don’t need to worry about breaking your own machine. For me, they offered a playground where I could rent the space I needed before trashing it without having to invest massive sums of money in my own data center.
Part 4, Bringing it All Home
Over time, my suspicions grew about these big capital C capital P Cloud Providers. Amazon Web Services, in particular, seemed like a dangerous enemy and an even more dangerous partner. As they grew bigger and hungrier for data, customers, and markets; smaller competitors eventually want to move their stuff away and hide it in other cloud providers, or better yet, inside their own data centers for the sake of privacy and security.
Reflecting on this, I eventually created my own data center instead. It consists of a pair of old Dell boxes that I keep in the corner of my office; while they aren’t much to look at, they do everything for me that a much bigger and costlier center would do for just the electricity costs. This helps show me how these things would interact in a space where I can actually touch them, which helps abstract them out into the ‘real world’ (e.g., the internet.) Right now it consists of a smaller docker website; if you’d like to visit it, please go ahead and get in touch with me.
For any other info on what I’m doing now or how I plan to expand in the future, you can contact me at jack.harter.8@gmail.com or directly via LinkedIn. Please don’t spam or contact me for contract services. But if you’d like to buy me a beer or coffee, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Lots of love, stay safe, and let me know if there’s anything I can provide. 😄